OLD WHALING DAYS. 159 



drowned. The wind blew strong, and the sea was running 

 high ; but, owing to the darkness and storm, he was never 

 seen again. If it had been daylight he could not have been 

 saved ; and, strange to say, I do not think more than six 

 men out of the whole number could swim. This was the 

 poor young man's first voyage to sea. It was not our prac- 

 tice to allow an inexperienced hand to go aloft until we 

 arrived in smooth water. He had been teased about 

 staying on deck by some of his thoughtless companions, so 

 he ventured aloft for his first and last time. 



On reaching the longitude of Cape Farewell, strong gales 

 from the north-west prevailed, and we were under close 

 reefed, and at intervals, double reefed topsails, for three 

 weeks. It was a long, cold, dreary time. We were con- 

 stantly in sight of ber^s, which kept us always on the alert. 

 When a fair wind came, we found ourselves in the same 

 latitude and longitude we were in three weeks before. 

 However, we struggled on, and eventually made the ice off 

 Baal's River, on the east side of Davis's Straits. 



This place is frequently spoken of by Baffin, in his first 

 recorded voyage in 1612, in which Mr. Andrew Barker was 

 master of the second ship called the Heart's Ease, belonging 

 to Hull. Mr. Barker was admitted a Younger Brother of 

 the 1'rinity House, Hull, in the year 1594, and was warden 

 in 1606, 1613, 1618, and there still hangs in the Hail of the 

 Trinity House, a kayak or canoe, with the effigy of an 

 Esquimaux. It has the following inscription, " Andrew 

 Barker, one of the Wardens of this House, on his voyage, 

 anno domini 1613, took up this boat and a man in it, of 

 which this is the effigy." It is still in good preservation, 

 and has the original paddle, drogue, bird dart, harpoon, and 

 gear. 



There is another canoe in the Schiffer Gessellschaft, at 

 Lubeck, brought to Europe by the Danish Expedition, in 

 1607. At this early period the natives were savages, but 



